Joy to your world
by Miss Barbara
Summary: It's Christmas themed Team fic, a little bit of sadness and a little bit of joy, all at Ducky's place.


This story is written as gift for the Secret Santa exchange at NFA, it's a christmas team fic!

Joy to your world

Ducky pulled a blanket over his legs as he sat in his chair in front of the fireplace. Just two days until Christmas. His maid had set up a tree and some ornaments, but he didn't really care. Not anymore.

This would be his first Christmas without his mother; his first Christmas alone. He wanted to ask some friends over, but listening to them while they were chatting in the squad room, he noticed that they already had a great party to go to. So he didn't bother to invite them. He thought about inviting Gibbs for a moment, but he knew that his friend always spent Christmas in his basement, drinking bourbon and looking at pictures of Shannon and Kelly.

So there he was, all alone. The house felt empty and too big without his mother or her corgis. He lifted his glass of cognac and swirled it. He looked at the gold brown fluid and took a sip. Nothing better than some of this brown gold.

Sitting in the chair and staring at the fire, his thoughts wandered off.

A smile crept on his face as he remembered Tony trying to protect his mother. He had told him afterwards about his adventure with the furniture and the corgis. He had laughed so hard that he had tears rolling down his cheeks. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed that hard.

With a smile he thought back about the other great memories that this house contained. In this very room he had said his first word - the first of many that would follow. He remembered his mother telling stories about his first words and how they later regretted that he had learned to speak so early.

Or the little garden house, in the back of their garden between the rose bushes. The place where had dissected his first mouse. Many different kinds of animals had been cut open there. In that small shed he had developed an interest for the inside of animals, and later for humans. Not that he had ever performed an autopsy there, but he had some anatomy books on the shelf there.

Another important part of the house was the study, its walls filled with books on a variety of subjects. He had spent much time there when he was just a student at medical school, secretly reading his father's medical books. And not so long ago he had been studying there, when he was learning for his psychology master. It was always a joy to step in to that room, inhale the scent of old and new books mixed together, and enjoy a cup of Earl Grey Tea and the fireplace.

Shifting his eyes from the fire to the chair at the other side of the room, he saw the chair Kate had sat in when that psycho was trying to kill him. With a sad smile he thought back to that evening; he had been scared, but he knew that Gibbs would be there to save him.

Poor Caitlin - Gibbs hadn't been able to save her, and he knew that the man still felt responsible for what happened on that rooftop. It was times like these that he missed the people that passed away the most.

Christmas was a magical time, but it was supposed to be spent with all of your loved ones, not just the ones that were lucky enough to still be alive.

Closing his eyes, he thought about all of the people that had passed away, people that he had loved.

Caitlin. She was completely dedicated to her job and in the end it had cost her her life, just because that bastard Ari wanted to torment Jethro. The man had been fascinating but in the need of a good psychiatrist.

Jenny. He was shocked when she had first come to him, telling him about her disease. He had been speechless. She wasn't that old yet, still alone in life. She had always been busy making a career. It had been horrible to hear that she had been killed in the shootout, but he had been happy for her. Things had ended on her own terms.

Paula, Jim and Rick. Giving their lives to save the country. It had been hard enough on the agency to lose Rick and Jim. Even though they were from the Pentagon, they were NCIS, so they were family. He remembered that case very well. He had spent hours solving the mystery of the "dead man talking". But hearing later that week that they also had lost Paula had been devastating; she had worked some cases in the headquarters and he knew her a little.

When Gibbs called him on the day that the conference was supposed to happen he knew things went wrong. He could hear the sorrow in his friend's voice -the pain of losing someone else. Without a word, he and Jimmy had driven to the scene to pick up the two bodies.

Chris Pacci. He was not forgotten yet. Poor Chris had been disemboweled; there was blood everywhere. Cases like his were bad enough on their own. but the fact that it was someone that he knew, a man he considered a friend, made things all the more worse.

He had felt sorry while performing the autopsy. Chris had been there to visit him just one week before. He needed some information on an old case and afterwards they had talked. Chris had told him that he was planning on asking his girlfriend to marry him. He had been murdered with the engagement ring in his pocket.

Ducky had secretly sent the ring to the poor girl so that she would know what he had been planning. He didn't know if it would make things better or worse, but it seemed like a good decision to him at the time.

With tears in his eyes he thought about all the people he ever had performed an autopsy on. All those people who were missed right now. And even though he had enjoyed performing some of those autopsies, it was never a joy for the people who had loved these persons. Every one of these people had a family; once upon a time they had been a woman's little wonder and the spark in the eye of a man.

Dipping some tears away from his eyes he decided that it was time to go to bed. Laying the blanket aside he checked the fireplace to make sure it wouldn't spread and walked over to his bedroom.

---

As Abby drove down Route 267 with her hearse full of Christmas ornaments, she smiled. Ducky was going to get the surprise of a lifetime. Knowing that Ducky would miss his mother, they had made the plan to celebrate Christmas at his place.

Jimmy, Tony, Ziva, McGee, Jimmy and even Gibbs had agreed to a sleepover Christmas party. Jimmy and McGee had plans to celebrate Christmas day at their families' home, but that hadn't kept her from organizing something. Deciding that they could all spend the day before Christmas together, she had made a little plan.

Driving towards Ducky's house she decided to check and make sure he was even home. Luckily, he answered the phone after four rings. She smiled and pretended to call just to make small talk. She was pretty sure that he didn't expect anything when she closed her phone.

She parked her car in front of the house and rang the doorbell. She beamed with joy when she saw Ducky's surprised face.

"Merry Christmas!" she said hugging him. The ME didn't try to hide his confusion. "What is going on, Abigail?" he asked her.

"I knew that you hated that you were going to be alone this Christmas, so I came up with this awesome plan." She let go of him and closed the door. Guiding her to the living room he couldn't hide his curiosity.

"Tell me my dear, don't keep an old man waiting!" he said with a big smile on his face, trying to hide his excitement.

Abby sat down on the tip of her chair and started talking with big arm gestures. "Well, I knew that you hated it that you would be alone so I thought about this plan. Since some of the team wanted to celebrate Christmas at their parents' houses, I decided that we would come here the day before Christmas and pretend that it is already Christmas." She took a breath and looked at her older friend. Abby took satisfaction in the fact that the man looked so happy he could light up any moment.

"So, my little elves, Jimmy and Timmy are going to come over in about an hour and help me prepare the food. Later Gibbs, Tony and Ziva are going to come over. We'll have a big Christmas dinner and afterwards we'll exchange our presents."

Bouncing up and down on the couch she couldn't hide her excitement. "But! The best part is: We are going to have a big sleepover party afterwards! Tony is going to bring his home cinema sets and or course a few Christmas classics!. We figured that you had so much room, it wouldn't be a problem."

Ducky just smiled and walked over to hug her. "That is fantastic, my dear!" But then his facial expression changed to a slightly more shocked one. "I don't have any presents!" he exclaimed.

The excited goth smiled. "Go shopping!" she said encouragingly. "I will be fine and most of the people won't arrive for another couple hours or so."

So half an hour later, Ducky drove his Morgan down the road to shop for some last minute Christmas gifts.

Abby opened the back door of her car and started loading all of her stuff out of the car. She hung some of her own Christmas decorations in the living room and stored all her gifts under Ducky's tree. When she was satisfied with how the room looked, she walked over to the kitchen and sorted out all the groceries that she had bought.

She had just finished stuffing the small turkey when the doorbell rang. Leaving the turkey for the moment, she skipped over to the door to greet McGee and Palmer. "Hello my little elves," she said, bouncing up and down.

They walked in holding gifts and bags that probably contained even more gifts. She guided them to the living room and ordered them to unpack their gifts while she would put the turkey in the oven.

She was washing her hands when McGee walked in to the kitchen. "Did he like the surprise, Abs?" he asked a little worried.

"He loved it!" Abby assured him. "He is buying gifts right now. You have to trust me, he was beaming so bright he could be the star shining above the manger."

"Okay, let's start!" McGee said while accepting a black apron from Abby. "I can make the yams," he stated and grabbed some potatoes out of the bag on the kitchen counter.

Palmer chose that exact moment to walk in. It always surprised Abby how handsome he was when he was not wearing scrubs and his glasses. He had contact lenses but he only used them on special occasions. Abby had been able to convince him that Christmas qualified as a special occasion.

"Hey Jimmy," she said while handing him a grey apron. "What do you want to do?" she asked him while handing him a list of things that she still needed to do. He looked at the list for a moment, deciding what he would be able to make.

"I will roast some vegetables," he decided before grabbing the bag filled with vegetables and starting to slice them.

Abby leaned back against the kitchen table as she sipped her drink. Even though some pretty hot guys had asked her to spend Christmas with them, she had decided that nothing in the world could compare to spending Christmas with her surrogate family.

Ducky for instance. The man understood science and facts were important to him- she liked that. And Palmer, he was really sweet. He had asked her on a date once, and she had agreed, just to be polite. He had taken her to this wonderful, romantic place and he had really spoiled her. But he had been really nervous and in the end, he had been talking so much and so fast that it was even out of Abby's league.

Gibbs was much like a father to her. He protected her, made her feel safe. And when something in her apartment was broken, he didn't hesitate to come over and fix it for her. She knew that she was like a daughter to him, a sibling to Kelly, the real daughter he had loved. She liked it that she wasn't a replacement for Kelly. She was just Abby.

And Tony, Ziva and McGee, they would do about anything for her. She loved them to bits and pieces and would do anything for them too. And Timmy, she still thought of him as her Timmy even though they had stopped dating a really long time ago. He always knew how she was feeling. He protected her and would give his life to save her.

One day he would find a woman and marry her. He would make her the happiest woman in the whole wide world, and she would love him back. Too bad she didn't believe in marriage.

She noticed that she had finished her drink and set the empty glass on the table behind her. Grabbing her list she started digging through her bags. A bag of lettuce was the first thing she grabbed, so she decided to go with that.

Singing Christmas carols she chopped the cucumber, tomatoes and peppers. When she started singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You", McGee joined her and singing, they finished the meal. Abby invited Jimmy to sing along but he excused himself saying that he was not really that good of a singer. And when he demonstrated, they heard he was right, but this wasn't the time to complain about hitting wrong notes.

The mood in the room was very happy. They had fun preparing the food and singing Christmas songs. Abby had dug two pairs of black antlers with snowflakes out of a box and handed them to McGee and Palmer. They looked ridiculous but neither of them dared to refuse Abby something.

A few hours later Ziva arrived. She could barely manage to carry all the boxes she was holding and was thankful when McGee ran to give her a hand. After Ziva had placed all the boxes beneath the tree she insisted on helping in the kitchen. Palmer and McGee were thankful for this chance to flee the kitchen and walked over to the living room.

Tony arrived as the same time as Gibbs, but where Gibbs simply carried his presents inside the house and laid them under the tree, Tony made a whole show of it. He took one present at the time and made sure that nobody would even see the box.

While the men settled down in the living room, Ducky drove his Morgan up to the house. With a big smile on his face he brought the boxes to his study and took a minute to admire the stack of boxes that was already there.

After checking up on Ziva and Abby in the kitchen, he sat down with Gibbs, Tony and Palmer in the living room.

"You like it, Duck?" Gibbs asked his friend with a smile. "I think it is a marvelous idea, Jethro, I didn't want to be alone, but I also didn't want to interrupt your plans," he confessed.

"You can hardly call working on a boat in the basement while drinking bourbon plans, Ducky." Tony laughed, already ducking for the head slap, but much to his surprise Gibbs smiled. "At least it keeps you away," he joked back.

As Abby walked in to the room to announce that dinner was ready she took a few seconds to enjoy the mood in the room. Everyone was friendly and joking. Just as Christmas should be, in her book.

Abby had set the table in the dining room and it was surprising, to say the least. Several traditional Christmas ornaments were lined up next to more unorthodox ones. Abby's signature was clearly visible on the table. When everyone sat down at the table, Ducky asked for a few minutes of silence to say a prayer. Abby joined him; Jimmy and McGee also closed their eyes.

After a few minutes, Gibbs cleared his throat.

"There are lots of families, some of those families we choose, others you just get. And right now I am not going to give a speech or something, but I just want to say that not many people have a family like ours," he said with a smile. "To us," he toasted. "To us," everyone replied.

When everyone sat back down, Abby started carrying the food in to the dining room. With every dish she said what it was and who made it. After 15 minutes she sat down and encouraged everyone to eat.

During the meal everybody had a good time. Ducky told stories about days long ago. Tony did his best James Bond expression and Gibbs just enjoyed the get-together of his surrogate family. Hours went by and people enjoyed themselves. When even Tony was full, everyone grabbed some plates and dishes and took them to the kitchen.

When the table was cleared they all went to the study, taking a seat. Abby and McGee made sure everyone had coffee or tea before even they sat down. Everyone noticed that Abby and McGee were holding hands, but nobody said anything about it.

The group sat back in the chairs and on the couch, enjoying the Christmas spirit that was so obvious in the room. It was Tony who couldn't wait any longer.

"Come on guys! Let's open the presents!" he said, acting like a little child. Everyone smiled and even Gibbs couldn't suppress a laugh. "Let's wait a little longer," he teased his senior field agent.

But Abby decided to ignore Gibbs. He may be the boss at work, but she could kick some ass after hours. She bounced to the tree and picked a gift with her eyes closed.

"Ziva!" she said as she opened her eyes. Extremely excited and curious, she ran to the Israeli to hand her the gift. "Come on!" she said, "Open up."

Where anyone else would have torn the paper from the present, Ziva took her time to unwrap it. When the paper was all gone she held a black box in her hand; it was a nice leather box. There was a little bow around the box with a card. 'Merry Christmas, Ziva' the card said.

Untying the bow Ziva opened the box, and inside was a beautiful knife.

"You like it?" McGee asked. A knife was a dangerous gift to give- if she didn't like it she could just as easily use it against him.

"Of course I like it, McGee!" she exclaimed. "It is a 17th century combat knife- it's beautiful!" McGee let his breath go and smile. "Glad you like it," he said.

Ziva was the next to pick a present from the pile; she refused to close her eyes and simply grabbed the first present on top. "Jimmy," she said handing the envelope to him.

Jimmy, who was really curious, opened the card to read it. After a few seconds he looked up and started reading the card out loud. "Dear Jimmy," he read. "Medical school is very expensive, so instead of buying you gifts we decided to all chip in to pay some of your loans off. This card can be used as a sort of gift certificate for $10,000 dollars."

With tears in his eyes he stood up and hugged everyone in the room; he was even brave enough to give Gibbs a quick hug. "Thanks guys," he said, "This is really too much."

"You should mostly thank Mr. Gemcity," Tony said. "It was his idea and mostly his money. Who knew that he was making thousands of dollars with a book that he only promised to write?

McGee smiled. "Everyone paid for your gift; it doesn't matter who paid the most."

Palmer, still full disbelief, walked to the pile to grab another gift. It was the biggest box in the pile, and of course it was for Abby. Packed in black paper with a red bow tie, that was obvious without having to read the card attached.

Bouncing up and down she accepted the box from Palmer and unwrapped it, tearing the paper from the box.

"Wow, you guys!" she exclaimed. "This is awesome." She opened the lid from the box and took a chastity belt out. "I love it!"

"It's from us." Ziva said, pointing at Tony. "We knew that your last one had an accident, so we found this one for you instead. It is a classic 18th century belt, but it isn't French, it is a British one."

"Who cares?" Abby asked as she ran towards her two coworkers to hug them. "I love it!"

Walking towards the tree she grabbed another present. "Gibbs," she said before handing the man the little box. He opened it and lifted a card out. "A subscription to 'Sniper Monthly'," he smiled. "Thanks Duck." he said while shaking the hand of his old friend.

He took yet another gift from the pile and handed it to Tony. "Here you go," he said before sitting back down on his chair. Tony, who never had been that patient ripped the paper from the box and started jumping up and down. "This is awesome!" he said. "Who is it from?" Suddenly he had an epiphany and turned to McGee "It must be you, mister big time writer! No one else has the connections to get VIP access to a Playboy mansion party!"

When Abby studied his face she suddenly understood where the term "as happy as a boy on Christmas morning" came from. Tony's smile went from one ear to the other as he gloated.

Tony handed a box to McGee. "There you go, Probie," he said, watching McGee closely. As McGee unwrapped the DVD case he wrinkled his forehead; he was hoping that it wasn't something along the lines of the very best of David Hasslehoff. But then he jumped up. "Tony!" he said, "This is awesome! "Abs, this is Halo 4 it'snot even released yet!"

When McGee realized that he was probably holding an illegal copy of the game he went up to Tony. "How exactly did you get this?" he asked.

"Well," Tony smiled. "Let's say that someone owed me big time, and I collected. Go ahead and open the case."

When McGee opened the box he couldn't have had a bigger smile on his face. "It is even signed by Jason Jones, Martin O'Donnell and Joseph Staten!"

More gifts where exchanged throughout the evening. Everyone had come up with some awesome gifts that were perfect for the person receiving the gift. Gibbs received some boat tools and Ziva received some cookbooks. Abby had knitted Ducky a black and white scarf, which he promised to wear with great joy.

And when the pile of gifts was finally down and everyone was admiring the gifts he or she had gotten, Abby decided to refill the coffee cups while Tony set up his movie theater. "It isn't MTAC," he said "But it will do." He smiled as the projector beamed the image on the wall. Poking the fire he waited until Abby was back before starting the movie.

Palmer excused himself, he had to go; otherwise he wouldn't catch the plane to his family. He was about to call a taxi when Gibbs offered to drive him to the airport.

Before Gibbs left with Palmer, Abby handed them a coffee for on the road and a doggy-bag for Palmer. They drove the first few minutes in silence before Palmer finally dared to ask the question. "Why the money?"

Gibbs, who already had expected the question, smiled. "I won't settle for less than the best. That's how I train my agents, I invest in them. I supply Abby with Caf-pow, I smack Tony on his head and I let McGee ramble his techno-babble. That's how they improve, learn and get better. This is the way we could invest in you."

When Palmer didn't speak after two minutes of silence he took his eyes of the road for a few seconds. Next to him was Palmer, beaming so brightly that he could have lightened the entire city.

"I am part of your team?" he asked full disbelief. "You guys think I am worth improving?"

Gibbs didn't need to answer that question and when he dropped the man off at the airport, he knew that he had given him the best present imaginable.

----

As a final touch, Abby got a big bowl from the kitchen filled with marshmallows. When she sat down, Tony started the movie, and even though everyone knew the movie already, no one said a word. Somewhere halfway through the movie Gibbs walked back into the room in his usual silent manner.

Gibbs sat back in his chair and smiled upon the sight of his team, lost in the magic of Christmas. He growled at them and slapped them in the back, but he always did it because he cared. 'I am going to personally wish everyone a very merry Christmas,' he thought, before turning his attention back to the movie.

An hour after the movie McGee decided to go to bed. He would be driving to his parents' house early next morning and being sleep-deprived wouldn't help his case. It was Abby who decided that it was time for them all to go to bed. As a surprise, McGee and Tony had put 4 mattresses in one room so the younger people could sleep together.

They reasoned that Ducky and Gibbs would sleep in their own rooms and they were right. When Gibbs went to check on his team an hour later, like a father would check his kids, he smiled upon the sight of the four of them cuddling in a big pile.

Abby was lying in the middle on her side, spooned by McGee. He smiled when he noticed how well they fit together. On the other side of Abby was Tony, who was holding hands with Abby, fingers entwined. Ziva was sprawled on Tony's chest. It was a peaceful picture.

He wanted a good team and now he had one. He could push them for days to the max and still they would give everything they have. He had gotten this team; they would do everything for the team. He knew for a fact that any one of them would die for another in a heartbeat. They were good, but they weren't professional, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

He smiled as he closed the door and walked to his guest room. This Christmas party had been one of Abby's better ideas. "Merry Christmas," he whispered to the ones he had once loved, before closing his eyes and drifting away in a peaceful sleep.


End file.
